Ripple Inc., payment gateway for hundreds of assets and digital currencies has announced the closure of btc2ripple gateway for all US residents starting September 1, 2015.
Btc2ripple gateway is one of the hundreds of gateways on the Ripple Trade platform which is used to purchase or trade BTC to XRP (Ripple’s IOU). On September 1, Ripple will shut down the btc2ripple gateway for all U.S. residents, which will disallow any Americans from purchasing or depositing BTC using Ripple Trade accounts.
Btc2ripple is operated by a Lithuanian company UAB SKV3, located in Vilnius. The decision to shut down the BTC to XRP gateway was finalized by UAB SKV3, not Ripple Inc.
In a statement, the btc2ripple team announced, “We are discontinuing the btc2ripple service for U.S. residents. All non-U.S. customers will have full access to our service as usual. Starting Sept 1, 2015, you will not be able to make BTC deposits to your Ripple Trade account or make BTC withdrawals from your Ripple Trade account.”
If any U.S.-based accounts hold BTC on or after September 1, all bitcoin will be forfeited.
The majority of Ripple Trade users are based in the United States, and so the closure of btc2ripple may lead to a large decline in bitcoin/xrp trading volume on its platform.
This post has been updated to add information about UAV SKV3, the operator of btc2ripple.
